Tuesday, May 16, 2017

After the students leave in May I usually have a couple of weeks in
which I try to clean up the processing room and make sure everything in
it is cataloged, has a great finding aid, and encode the finding aid. Here is part of what I completed last week.

Dorothy Hodell Brooks Family Research Collection, Approx. 3 cubic ft. (in 2 boxes, 2 v., 2 Ov. folders, 2 display boards, 1 Ov. photograph, 1 shadow box) This collection
contains materials related to Brooks' research for her book, A Certain
Sadness: The Untimely Deaths and Family of David and Romie Hodell in
1920s Rural Newaygo County, Michigan. This research mainly involved
Hodell family history, focusing on the people and events surrounding the
murder of her uncle, Romie Hodell, and her grandfather, David Hodell.
Included in the collection are genealogies, photographs, copies of
newspaper articles and telegraphs, correspondence between family
members, and research notes. With rare exceptions, most of the materials
were created during the 2010s and are copies of primary sources. The
sources themselves date from before the murder in the 1880s to the
1990s. Some original materials are the undated pay book of David
"Hotel," [Hodell] Nina "Hotel's" [Hodell's] The Royal Path of Life
published in 1882, and the 1922 yearbook of Hollis Hodell. There are
also materials in Box 2 and 3 that are copies from other libraries, such
as the Bentley Historical Library. This collection was left in its
original order as much as possible, which follows the research pattern
of the donor.

All the Bliss boxes and folder my spring 2017 HST 583 class processed

The Bliss boxes represent the fifth year my students in HST 583 Archival Administration have processed part of the Charles S. Bliss collection. Here's the description of what they processed this term. C. S. Bliss and Company Business Records and Family Papers, 1887-1904. So far we've processed 41.25 cubic ft. (in 97 boxes, 15 folders) Approximately
20 cubic feet of manuscripts and several hundred oversized volumes
remain to be processed. An inventory of the unprocessed boxes

The fifth
processed section, includes 11.25 cubic feet in 27 boxes and 7
legal-size folders, February 1902-December 1904. Most of the materials
are business related, including correspondence from customers and
several Bliss agents, Samuel McReavy (in boxes 72-75, 79, 81, 83, 89
discussing a smallpox quarantine, 92, 95-97), A. Meston (in boxes 78-81,
83); Perrin (in boxes 75, 81, 84); O. N. Sproul (a scaler, in box 80,
including his reports of lumber scaled and hauled at Butman Camp in box
97); and O. Miner (in box 72). There are reports from men who ran Bliss’
farm, Walter R. Black (in boxes 81, 84-85, 88-89, 93-95) and B. W.
Snow, who began as a farm hand (in box 89) and later replaced Block
running the farm (in box 97). There is information on the Vanderbilt
Camp (in box 72) and Butman Camp (in boxes 77, 88, 97). There are also
several folders of correspondence on women applying to work as
stenographers or do other office business work for Bliss (in boxes
80-81, 90-91). Personal information includes general letters from Bliss’
sister Maude (in box 72), Luman Bliss (in box 77) and cousin, E.E.
Bliss, about a hunting vacation (in box 80). There is also a 1904 letter
from a friend, C.S. Blodgett, discussing the young Bliss children (in
box 94). Also of interest is an early 1904 thank you note from Mrs.
Grace (Herbert H.) Dow about Mr. Dow’s pig, named Christmas Carol, which
was a present from Mr. Bliss (in box 87).
Bliss